With 100 percent of all precincts reporting, the Division of Elections has posted preliminary unofficial results from last week’s midterm elections. The results of House District 39 (including Nome, Bering Strait, Norton Sound and some interior communities) do not reflect entirely statewide results, most notably in the Governor’s race the urban-rural divide showed the disparity.
Voter turnout statewide was at 42.20 percent with 241,348 ballots cast out of a total of 571,851 registered voters. The community with the highest voter turnout in House District 39 was Shaktoolik, where 102 voters cast a ballot, out of 158 registered voters. Nome’s voter turnout was 29.29 percent for precinct 1 and 31.67 percent for precinct 2.
Statewide, 85-year-old Congressman Don Young held on to his seat, as 53.74 percent cast ballots for Young and 45.84 percent for his challenger, Democrat Alyse Galvin. In HD 39, the results were different. The majority of voters voted for Galvin in Brevig Mission, Golovin, Nome, Savoonga, Shishmaref, Teller, Wales and White Mountain. Don Young took Little Diomede (by two votes), Elim, Gambell, Koyuk, Shaktoolik, St. Michael and Unalakleet. District-wide, Galvin took 2,604 votes over Don Young’s 2,465.
In the Governor’s race, the Mike Dunleavy/Kevin Meyer ticket received 52.19 percent statewide over Mark Begich/Debra Call’s 43.74 percent. In District 39, 3,345 voters cast their ballots for Begich/Call and only 1,320 voters voted for Dunleavy/Meyer. The majority in all communities in District 39, voted for Begich/Call. Koyuk was the only community where the majority voted for Dunleavy.
Ballot measure 1 failed. Statewide, 63.39 percent voted No on the measure that sought to install legal protections for salmon-bearing habitat, and 36.61 percent voted yes. In House District 39, the majority in White Mountain, Golovin and Diomede voted yes, th majority in the rest of the district, including Nome, voted no.
House District 39 saw only Democrat Neal Foster on the ballot. Without having to fight off a challenger, Foster received 4,533 votes, or 95.79 percent. There were 199 write-in votes cast.
Close races included Senate District A (Fairbanks) where Democrat Scott Kawasaki trailed incumbent and Senate speaker Pete Kelly by only 11 votes. House District 1, also in Fairbanks, had Republican Barton LeBon leading by only 79 votes over Democrat Kathryn Dodge. At press time, the division of elections announced an update reflecting absentee ballots counted. According to the new numbers, Senate District A shows Democrat Scott Kawasaki with a lead of 152 votes and in House District 1, Democrat Kathryn Dodge shows a lead of just ten votes.